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In 1972, the government of Lebanon decided to build two memorial monuments in honour of the Druze ruler Emir Fakhr al-Din al-Ma[MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RING]ni II, Lebanon's greatest national hero. One was in the Druze town of Ba[MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RING]qlin, the other - an identical bronze statue - in the Christian town of Dayr al-Qamar.1 In August 1975, at the height of the second civil war, these monuments were dedicated in the presence of President Sulayman Franjiyah. However, Druze leader Kamal Junblat, who was not present at the ceremony, declared that the Lebanon of that day did not represent the authentic Lebanon of Fakhr al-Din II's time.2
Eleven years later, the Druzes had still not found a way to demonstrate their historical victory over the Lebanese establishment other than to destroy the memorial statue to Fakhr al-Din.3 To them, the monument reflected the Christian myth of Fakhr al-Din, or the myth of "deification" as Salibi called it.4 They regarded the erecting of the monument by the Christian political entity as a physical display of the systematic falsification of Lebanese historiography by this ruling elite. For the Druzes, the portrait of Fakhr al-Din hanging in the al-Mukhtarah palace - a Druze palace - far better reflected the authentic historical memory of Fakhr al-Din etched into their collective consciousness.5
The chain of events associated with the statue of Fakhr al-Din embodies a different war, waged in Lebanon alongside the civil war. A conflict without bloodshed, it became evident with the founding of Greater Lebanon in 1920, but had even preceded it. Since emerging as a national political entity, Lebanon has struggled with the challenge of its historiography. The battle has been about the national and cultural content of Lebanese nationalism. The Druzes, who consider themselves the founding fathers of the Lebanese state, have played an active role in this struggle.
Although a great deal has been said and written about the second Lebanese civil war, few studies exist on this more subtle war over Lebanon's history. In his book, A House of Many Mansions, the well-known Lebanese scholar Kamal Salibi devoted a whole chapter to this subject,6 and in 1984...